maybe the new paint will hold up the walls

Last night I put together an etagere for my new teensy bathroom, and then I had a dream that my apartment was falling apart.

But before I get into either of those things, let me begin by apologizing that my posts have been so sucky lately and have mostly been about my apartment and/or the fact that I have nothing to write about. But, um, this post is going to be about my apartment because I have nothing else to write about.

On we go.

Yes. I bought a chrome etagere (at least that's what they called it on the box - it's a shelving unit that fits behind/above your toilet) from Bed, Bath and Beyond last week, and I finally put the thing together last night. It was actually quite enjoyable. I like putting things together (which is why the thought of buying things at IKEA sends me into a fit of giddy anticipation). I like seeing the finished product and being able to say, "Hey, I did that and it looks pretty cool." But anyway, in this case, there were a couple minor setbacks. Not with the construction of the item, but with its placement in the bathroom. First off, there was this butt-ugly yellowish "thing" attached to the wall behind the toilet that I desperately needed to get rid of because the sight of it made me want to vomit. I guess it was an attempt at a shelf to put tissue etc. on, since the toilet itself is one of those industrial ones that doesn't have a tank. But anyway, it had to go, so go it did. But behind it was all this discolored, chipped paint that I'm either going to have to Spackle before repainting, or try to sand down to a smoother texture. Secondly, I found out after setting the thing up that the unusually long toilet seat lid doesn't clear the bottom shelf. So now I am going to have to find something to put underneath it to raise it an inch or two. As it is, the toilet is set pretty far back, and is perhaps not the most comfortable seat what with the shelf directly behind it, but the added discomfort of having to hold up the lid ... well, I'm not going to let that happen. And lastly, it's not exactly stable at the moment because I had to leave off the bottom bar in order to get the thing behind the toilet to begin with. Now that it's in position, I can attach the bar for that added stability, but I don't want to do that until I do the painting in there that I intend to do at some point. Because if I attach it now, I'll just have to detach it again when I remove it to paint, only to reattach it when I'm done. Screw that. But yeah. It's in there. And it looks pretty cool.

Then last night I had a very scary dream. I dreamt that I woke up to an apartment that was literally falling apart. And this was one of those super-realistic dreams that leave you wondering if it really happened. In the dream, I woke up late because of a faulty alarm clock, opened my bedroom door and saw my place in a shambles. I leaned against my bedroom door frame, and the entire wall started moving. It was like the walls weren't attached to the ceiling anymore and were slowly crumbling and falling down. My parents were there (inexplicably), and I tried to show them what was happening, but they didn't seem to understand the urgency of it. My apartment walls were falling down!! This was bad!! I showed my Dad how I could literally push a wall over with the weight of my body, but he just kept putzing around the kitchen as if nothing was happening, and said maybe I should call the landlord and see if he could fix it. So I went downstairs to see if I could find someone else in the building who might be able to help or explain what was going on, but the apartment complex looked more like a hotel with red velvet all over the place, and all I could find was this restaurant, but there was nobody inside. I felt like I was in some kind of Stephen King story. When I actually woke up from the dream (on time, but to a faulty alarm clock that gives me loud static along with the alarm), I was incredibly relieved to see that all of my walls were firmly attached to both the floor and the ceiling, and my Dad was not putzing around in my kitchen.

So that's that. Maybe one day I'll be interesting.